Climbing Up the Billboard Charts

Sept. 18 2017, the seven-member group, BTS, came out with their newest album, “DNA”. After winning “Top Social Artist” at the Billboard Music Awards, this group had gained an abundance of popularity in the United States. Their previous album then started climbing up the Billboard charts, slowly but surely. Surprisingly, their new album completely took over the charts, reaching top 10 in the Billboard Top 200 Albums. Their album went from not being on the chart, to being number seven in just a week. They also got on the Hot 100, while still maintaining their number one spot in Top Social Artist.

These are the top 10 albums in the Billboard 200 Chart! The number one album, Concrete And Gold has been on the charts for only one week, while others, such as Hamilton have been on there for 104 weeks and haven’t attained the top spot!

What makes this so surprising is that this band’s new album is not even in English. Their whole album is in Korean, but has gained much attention in the United States and all over the World. They have even collaborated with the Chainsmokers on one of their songs, titled “Best of Me”, which is their first collaboration with a western artist. This brought the fans of the Chain Smokers and BTS together. BTS even went to the Chainsmokers’ concert in Korea and sang “Closer” with them.

Their new album, “Love Yourself: Her”, was released on Sept. 18, along with their title track’s music video. In just 10 days, the music video gained 60 million views! After its release, it has climbed charts on iTunes, Spotify, and other music programs. The band has spent almost every day after their release, performing at Korean music programs and receiving many awards. They have sent many words of thanks through social media and fan cafes.

In Korea, big bands have comeback shows once they release their album to show their performances and process of making the album. This was BTS’s first comeback show and live streamed live on Sept. 21. During this comeback show, there was a segment where some of the western artist that the band has met congratulated them and gave them words of encouragement. They received these words from Wale, Steve Aoki, Charli XCX, Laura Marano, and of course, the Chainsmokers. One of the members, Kim Namjoon, worked with Wale before on a song called “Change”. While the other artists have had encounters at or after the Billboard Music Awards. Steve Aoki just recently posted about a possible collaberation with BTS.

Here are some of the words of encouragement that the artists had to say.

Andrew Taggart: “Yeah, we worked on the track ‘Best of Me,’ which is an idea that we came up with for the music. And we sent it to them, and they turned it into this amazing song. And we’re super honored to be a part of the album, and we’re super stoked for them. Best of luck. I know it’s gonna be amazing. You guys are already the No. 1 artist in the world, but I guess congrats.”

Charli XCX: “The thing that I like about BTS is, they just have, No. 1, great style, and I feel like their whole vibe is just so next level. Like, really good style, great music, and amazing videos too. Hey to all my fellows in Korea and all the BTS fans — I know there’s loads of you guys — I just wanted to say I’m Charli XCX. I love you all. Peace.”

Hopefully their new album gains more and more love as their preparation for touring the album continues! I know all of their fans have been working very hard to take them on a journey no other Korean group has been on before.